▪ I. complot, n. Now rare.
(ˈkɒmplɒt)
In 6 -plotte.
[a. F. complot, 12th c. in Littré, in senses ‘crowd, concourse, struggle’, in 16th c. ‘combined plan or design’. Of uncertain origin: see Diez and Littré. On the surface it looks like a compound of com- and plot; but the latter does not occur in F. in a suitable sense (its ordinary meaning being ‘block of wood’, 14th c. in Godef.). Eng. plot in sense of complot is of about the same age, and perh. an abbreviation of this word.
In 16–17th c. poetry, comˈplot and ˈcomplot are used indifferently: Shakes. and Daniell have both. If plot was shortened from the word, it must have been from comˈplot. This is the form recognized by Johnson; but 19th c. orthoepists in general have ˈcomplot.]
A design of a covert nature planned in concert; a conspiracy, a plot.
| 1577 Holinshed Chron. II. 573 The disloiall enterprises and complots of malefactors. 1588 Shakes. Tit. A. v. ii. 147 To lay a complot to betray thy Foes. 1594 ― Rich. III, iii. i. 194 Lord Hastings will not yeeld to our Complots. 1599 Harsnet Agst. Darell 12 The Devill and his agents conspire in one Complotte against this Mighty work of the Lord. 1600 Heywood 2nd Pt. Edw. IV, Wks. 1874 I. 167, I cannot brooke their vile complots. a 1734 North Exam. iii. vi. §49 (1740) 459 Demonstrating to open View these cursed Stratagems and Complots against the King and his Government. 1814 Southey Roderick xxii, Just Heaven..hath marr'd Their complots. 1879 Dowden Southey 146 In ‘dern privacie’ a bold complot was laid. |
▪ II. complot, v. Now rare.
(kəmˈplɒt)
Also 6 complote.
[a. F. complot-er, f. complot: see prec.]
1. intr. To combine in a plot; to plot together.
| 1579 Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 531/2 They..are companions to the wicked & haue comploted with them. 1598 Rowlands Betray. Christ 19 When she [Jezebel] complotted for good Naboths ground. 1601 Holland Pliny xxix. i, They haue complotted and sworne one to another, for to murder all Barbarians. 1605 Camden Rem. (1637) 52 He assured himselfe of..the Empire which he then complotted for. 1681 H. More in Glanvill Sadducismus 10 Complotting with Sharp to murder her. 1704 E. Ward Dissenting Hyp. 74 The Gang Complotted more than once. a 1834 Coleridge Sonn., Stanhope, The train That sit complotting with rebellious pride. |
2. trans. To combine in planning or plotting (some act, usually criminal): to concert covertly.
| 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, i. i. 96 All the Treasons..Complotted, and contriued in this Land. Ibid. i. iii. 189 To plot, contriue, or complot any ill. 1607 R. Coke Charge Norwich Assizes 21 There was complotted another Spanish inuasion. 1702 C. Mather Magn. Chr. iii. i. App. (1852) 344 The Narragansett Indians had complotted the ruine of the English. 1868 Browning Ring & Bk. x. 733 Craft, greed and violence complot revenge. |
Hence comˈplotted ppl. a., concerted.
| 1594 J. Dickenson Arisbas (1878) 78 Complotted practises of bloud and reuenge. 1683 E. Hooker Pref. Pordage's Myst. Div. 63 By their so complotted commixture. |